I wept because I had three inches of new, wet snow in my driveway, and then I met a man who had 12 feet of Pacific Ocean in his.
Pals, in 60 minutes I have a meeting with my partners, and I intend to arrive fully coffee’d and freshly showered. In the meantime, I have time to scribble a few lines, but all I really want to do is watch video from Japan.
The Beeb has a nicely edited highlight reel. I’m touched by the grocery-store employees whose first impulse is to try to protect the stock from falling off the shelves. We give our lives to our jobs and we take pride in even the smallest ones. We deserve a few benefits in the bargain, Gov. Walker, you jerk.
So let’s make this an open Friday earthquake tsunami weekend thread. I’ll start: I just checked my Twitter stream for good links, and found that once again, I’d been auto-subscribed to Twibbon, the slacktivist site of choice; it peddles dozens of add-ons to your profile picture, so you can demonstrate to your social networks what a good person you are. You will not be surprised to know there is already a Twibbon for Japan. Someone told me the other day these things are informally known as Dickbars. No surprise there.
Off to the shower. Have a tremendous weekend, all. Now to watch the Grim across the wide, wide ocean.
brian stouder said on March 11, 2011 at 9:04 am
Every so often, our watery planet distinctly sloshes.
As Nance points out, events like today’s certainly place small-time movers and shakers like Gov. Wanker (I love that name! Thanks to whoever here invented that one) into proper perspective (ie – transient earth-shaker, with far-reaching consequences).
In the end, I’m sick of people who just want to make waves.
378 chars
LAMary said on March 11, 2011 at 9:32 am
As a resident of the Pacific Rim, it scares me shitless whenever there’s a quake like this. Chile, New Zealand (both twice in the past year} give me reason to check the food supply, the batteries and flashlights. I can guarantee people here will be stocking up today.
268 chars
Julie Robinson said on March 11, 2011 at 10:00 am
The BBC reports the tsunami is expected to be higher than entire islands in its path. Maybe for a few moments the world can remember the larger problems and priorities of humankind.
After seeing the movie Inception (still a perplexing thrill the second time around) last night on Fort Wayne’s brand new Imax screen, I have a little feel for what an earthquake and tsunami would feel like, rattling seats and all. When we came home, excited by the movie experience and happy family news, I opened my email to learn than an aunt has been diagnosed with a leukemia-like blood disorder and faces rough times.
Both situations are beyond my control, save for prayers and a check to the Red Cross. So, no snark for me today. Instead I’m going to remember that everyone needs kindness in their lives.
800 chars
Dorothy said on March 11, 2011 at 10:18 am
As devastating as the news is from Japan today, and the worry it creates for Hawaii and friends on the West Coast, at the office we are smiling a little. Our office manager (she sits right beside me) Mary found out that she’s going to be a Grandma in November. Her son who lives in Korea (teaches English) just got married about 2 weeks ago, and a month before the wedding his Korean bride went off the pill. She’s going to be 30 this year and they wanted to start a family as soon as possible. We are all so happy for her and her husband Kevin. Kevin is the guy who built our house and subsequently had serious health problems, had his right leg amputated (in 2009) including the knee. He had other serious complications and and narrowly survived this past fall when he was hospitalized for a little over two months. After so much unhappiness, it’s a wonderful day when good and hopeful news arrives.
907 chars
coozledad said on March 11, 2011 at 10:22 am
We need to start sending troops over there to assist in the rescue-restoration effort.
I seem to recall reading scientists have warned that even marginal increases in global temperatures elevate the incidence of catastrophic geothermal activity. First law of thermodynamics, maybe?
Physics and chemistry were not my friends.
328 chars
Julie Robinson said on March 11, 2011 at 10:53 am
Dorothy, good reminder, and I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to share our own good news today. Our daughter Sarah has accepted a call from a church in Surrey, British Columbia to form an intentional community and be its house pastor. Organic gardening and yes, probably chickens will be part of the wholistic life she envisions for this community. It’s what she has been working towards and dreaming about for many years and even the area she wanted to be in, near Vancouver. There is much to rejoice about and even on the saddest day life wins.
552 chars
Jolene said on March 11, 2011 at 10:59 am
The Atlantic hired the guy who used to do the Big Picture blog for The Boston Globe, and he’s already assembled a good collection of stills from the Japanese disaster. Note that this takes a couple seconds to load, as there are so many big, high-resolution photos.
After you look through those, scroll to the bottom and click to see what you missed by not going to Rio this week. Just an amazing display of . . . something.
I, too, was very touched by that video from the grocery store. Seemed very Japanese to me, though. I wasn’t sure I could imagine that Americans would so devoted to that kind of duty–saving lives maybe, but jars of pickles?
We are, though, sending lots of military aid, cooz. They are reporting that kind of help is already on the way, and, fortunately, some of the needed resources are pretty close at hand. (A US SAR team went to New Zealand.) Has also been reported that no US military personnel in Japan were killed or injured, and damage to facilities was trivial.
1024 chars
Deborah said on March 11, 2011 at 11:39 am
Jolene, I can’t get that link to work? And Julie regarding your daughter, that sounds just great, but what’s an intentional community?
134 chars
Rana said on March 11, 2011 at 11:42 am
Grateful that my friend in Tokyo is okay, and that Okinawa (where my brother and family are) had only a mild version of the tsunami.
Links and updates are in this thread: http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2011/03/open-thread-and-news-round-up.html
Meanwhile I’m glued to FB, where several friends are sharing info and worrying about loved ones.
358 chars
Jolene said on March 11, 2011 at 11:49 am
Here is is again, Deborah.
Also, Nick Kristof, who seems to have been everywhere in the world, writes about how Japanese culture helps in times like this.
365 chars
Jolene said on March 11, 2011 at 11:51 am
Yes, congrats to your daughter, Julie. BC is great and, just think, she’ll have health care. And you’ll have a great place to visit.
132 chars
moe99 said on March 11, 2011 at 12:04 pm
Julie, Seattle is just a few hours away from Vancouver. (hint, hint)
69 chars
adrianne said on March 11, 2011 at 12:06 pm
Been following the video, updates on the quake/tsunami on NYT The Lede blog…it’s terrifying. My prayers are with all those in its path.
137 chars
Julie Robinson said on March 11, 2011 at 12:09 pm
In an intentional community the residents have chosen to share a space and live under a set of rules that they have decided on together. They have regular meals together, though not all, and will have meetings and other scheduled time together, and will all have a financial obligation to the community. Hers will also have regular times of shared prayer throughout the day, and they will most likely be raising much of their food. They anticipate beginning with students from the local college but that is open to change as it develops.
Last night she saw something about Trump running for President and said she was glad to be leaving this country. It will be interesting to see how she likes living in Canada. And I’m thinking we need to change our credit card to one that earns airline mileage so we can visit often.
825 chars
John G. Wallace said on March 11, 2011 at 12:29 pm
One of the first press releases I received following the Japan Earthquake was from Florida AAA, with some idiotic prediction that the Treasure coast area will see lower fuel prices due to a decreased demand from Japan.
218 chars
Deborah said on March 11, 2011 at 12:33 pm
Thanks for the explanation Julie. I think they called those communes back in the 60s but they were not as organized back then. We have friends in New Mexico who were raised on communes. One guy was named Rainbow when he was born, for his 9th birthday his parents told him he could choose his own name. He chose Dan. We call him Dan the Rainbow Man now. Hope this doesn’t sound like I’m belittling what your daughter will be doing, at all. It actually really appeals to me, sounds fantastic and meaningful. Especially where it is.
529 chars
Little Bird said on March 11, 2011 at 1:18 pm
Didn’t one of the volcanoes on Hawaii just recently erupt? Something like last weekend? Could that have spawned whatever caused the tsunami?
I just got a call from Deborah explaining things, since I clearly don’t go to news sites.
235 chars
Dorothy said on March 11, 2011 at 1:21 pm
So happy for your daughter, Julie! Tell her congratulations from me!
I have never been further west than Wichita, and that was almost 32 years ago. But I might be accompanying my DH to San Francisco in May if he gets approved to take a class out there. I can keep myself busy Monday through Wednesday while he’s in class, and then we might head to Napa Valley to spend a couple of days tasting wine and seeing the sights. Hey Mary, maybe I could helicopter into LA one of those free days and come by your office! (Just kidding – I think it’s a 7 hour trip by car, right? And we aren’t getting a rental car until he’s done with the class.) However if anyone ELSE from our happy group here is in the San Fran area, I’d welcome a chance to have lunch! Fingers crossed that we get to go – I’m just dying to book my flight!
829 chars
Julie Robinson said on March 11, 2011 at 1:34 pm
Dorothy, that sounds like great fun. Take your yarn since it sounds like you have four baby blankets to make now!
Deborah, we have laughingly called Sarah our hippie daughter for many years since she has rejected much of the typical American lifestyle. Much of it sounds pretty appealing to us, too. This place will be less dipsy-doodle than the 60’s communes, I think, but will be formed for many of the same reasons.
And speaking of hippies, Matt has been cast in my favorite hippie musical, Godspell. It’s been a thrilling week for us. Last night I had trouble sleeping just from thinking about everything going on.
627 chars
del said on March 11, 2011 at 1:45 pm
“… even on the saddest day life wins.” Well said, Julie.
59 chars
Bitter Scribe said on March 11, 2011 at 2:05 pm
Ocean, n.
Water that covers two-thirds of a world made for Man, who has no gills.
–Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary
149 chars
nancy said on March 11, 2011 at 2:06 pm
John, I’m sure you remember the 2004 tsunami, and as a fellow victim of off-market journalism, know the first rule of a global story: LOCALIZE.
Two days after the 2004 disaster, when the AP was updating its death-toll estimates hourly, with tens of thousands of corpses piling up in this jaw-dropping horror, the editors at our rinky-dink newspaper gathered for a meeting. Someone said we need to localize the tsunami. One editor’s pitch: What effect might we be seeing in consumer coffee prices?
As best I can figure, the editor had stopped at Starbucks that morning and chose a Sumatran blend, came to work, noted Sumatra was one of the inundated coastlines and added 2 + 2.
To the credit of the others at the table, the story of the day was about a Sri Lankan priest in Fort Wayne, worried about his family back home.
832 chars
MichaelG said on March 11, 2011 at 2:23 pm
I know, Mary. There’s a kind of creepy feeling in the air. We are big time due. Over due. Whether it’s L.A. or the Bay Area or up north, it seems like there’s one looming over our shoulder. I don’t recall a really big one ever happening here in the Valley but who knows? Quakes keep occurring along “heretofore unknown faults”.
The Santa Cruz and especially Crescent City harbor areas have sustained some pretty serious damage from the tsunami.
The tsunami clips out of Japan are incredible and horrifying.
518 chars
Jolene said on March 11, 2011 at 2:44 pm
Didn’t one of the volcanoes on Hawaii just recently erupt? Something like last weekend? Could that have spawned whatever caused the tsunami?
I just got a call from Deborah explaining things, since I clearly don’t go to news sites.
So did you get the answer you were looking for re the relationship between earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis?
358 chars
Little Bird said on March 11, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Well, not exactly, but I am at least much more up to date on current events. I will spend more time this evening reading up on said relationship. I sort of know how some of them are tied together already, but I could always learn more.
237 chars
Sue said on March 11, 2011 at 3:24 pm
Holy Moley Nancy, I thought things were weird in WI – is it true that your Gov is giving himself the power to dissolve local governments and unseat elected officials? What?
http://blogs.forbes.com/erikkain/2011/03/11/michigan-governor-plays-fast-and-loose-with-democracy-invokes-radical-new-powers/
300 chars
Jolene said on March 11, 2011 at 3:24 pm
What these phenomena have in common is, LB, is that they all arise from movement of the tectonic plates that make up the earth’s crust. As the plates move, pressure is released, giving rise to the tremors that we experience in earthquakes and/or the explosions that occur inside volcanoes. Tsunamis are a result of the movement on the ocean floor when an earthquake occurs under the ocean. One of the seismologists on TV this AM said that this earthquake caused a rift in the ocean floor 100 miles wide and several hundred miles long, which means that lots of water was displaced. Hence the tsunami.
Just went to my FB page to look up a link when this post appeared, which gives a pretty clear and straightforward explanation. Of course, there’s lots of additional detail, but this is the basic idea.
937 chars
Jolene said on March 11, 2011 at 3:37 pm
I seem to be in a teacherly mood today. I have often found that a good way to get a basic understanding of technical subjects that are outside my field is to read something that’s meant for, say, junior high students. There are, of course, tons of places on line to read about plate tectonics, volcanoes, and earthquakes, but this site seems to bring it all together–in small chunks and w/o lots of technical language.
493 chars
Dorothy said on March 11, 2011 at 4:03 pm
Something fun for today. I feel like I’m using crayons but it’s just my mouse! Let yourself go crazy for a few minutes:
http://www.koalastothemax.com/
154 chars
Deborah said on March 11, 2011 at 4:11 pm
Jolene, excellent links, I was particularly bowled over by the info about the speed of the Tsunami waves, up to 400 miles an hour. Holy moly!
141 chars
John G. Wallace said on March 11, 2011 at 4:16 pm
Nancy,
In all fairness to my former employer I am not a victim of the off-market as much as my own personal issues. Getting stronger every day, and focusing on peace. Burned some bridges in Indiana, and couldn’t afford to live off just that income. I was there at a difficult time – technically I didn’t replace J.B, a beloved relic of a different age, but comparisons were a part of every aspect of my work. It was the wrong fit for me and for that community as well.
I’m thrilled to be working in any capacity, and to work for someone who doesn’t micromanage every detail. Sometimes he is too brief and I have to tug and pull to get clear direction.
I’ve been trying to localize this, have some readers on the West Coast who have been updating our FB fan page with details. Trying to get updates from some local people who may be sailing or on a trawler yacht in the area. The coffee idea wasn’t that bad, I’ve been trying to see if this means anything for our fishing industry and the saltwater aquarium trade as many wild caught specimins come from the Pacific Islands, as does the “live rock” hobbiests use in reef tanks, Fiji is a big supplier.
Happy news for Julie and her family. It it was a “commune” there would be some very happy hippies in British Columbia. Sounds like an interesting life and community, and the whole area is gorgeous – based on TV shows that filmed there, not a visit 🙁
1410 chars
paddyo' said on March 11, 2011 at 4:19 pm
LA Mary and Michael G — having grown up in California and experienced a few quakes, one of them very frightening, I thought moving to the Rockies edge of the Great Plains would be just about as safe as can be. No quakes (not in recent times, anyway), no hurricanes, and living within the Denver city limits, no threat of wildfire.
Ahh, but the Plains . . . tornadoes! Hailstorms! The year before I moved here, one twister danced from the south edge of downtown on down I-25 to the University of Denver. When thunderstorms move in on summer afternoons, I’m always looking up to see if those wispy tails of cloud swirl tighter and tighter and dip down.
One of these days . . .
And speaking of “intentional communities,” Julie and Deborah, there’s a really fine memoir of a classic ’60s-’70s hippie commune in southern Colorado that came out five or six years ago called Huerfano that is a vivid and well-written lesson the history, politics and cultural roots of the movement.
I don’t think their “intent” included the religion option that Julie’s daughter will be there to lead in her community, but that sort of social experiment has always fascinated me. Maybe I’m a candidate for “co-housing” if/when I get around to retiring.
1355 chars
moe99 said on March 11, 2011 at 4:20 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUpO1QFMDtM&feature=player_embedded
Michigan is screwed?
94 chars
Kirk said on March 11, 2011 at 4:54 pm
Expert on NPR this afternoon said, in response to a listener’s question, that it’s highly unlikely that recent Hawaiian volcanic activity has anything to do with the Japanese quake.
181 chars
Joe Kobiela said on March 11, 2011 at 5:02 pm
Wow,
Mrs pilot Joe and I flew out to New Hampshire to visit Daughter #2 and I didn’t see the Video till now. Keep expecting to see Godzilla.
Pilot Joe
152 chars
brian stouder said on March 11, 2011 at 5:32 pm
Jolene, those photos are astonishing. Picture 35 (I think) of the masses of new cars (ready for shipping) swept up like minnows in a net was the most arresting of the non-human ones.
Most of the others are just painful to see
228 chars
Rana said on March 11, 2011 at 5:40 pm
moe99 – I saw that earlier, and am aghast. I just don’t understand how dismantling the country and literally selling it off piece by piece to the highest bidders is legal, let alone happening, right now, with nary a peep from anyone with the power to do something about it. (Obama, I’m looking at you. *glares*)
332 chars
Little Bird said on March 11, 2011 at 5:42 pm
Thank you Jolene, that indeed was informative. I guess my question was more specific. I’m curious to know if the volcanic event in Hawaii last week was in any way directly related to this earthquake/tsunami event.
Leave it to me to ask a question that didn’t ask quite what I meant.
286 chars
Jolene said on March 11, 2011 at 5:52 pm
Almost forgot to post this very entertaining take-off on Newt’s rationale for his extramarital entanglements. Should give you a good laugh on this serious day.
275 chars
brian stouder said on March 11, 2011 at 6:03 pm
Excellent stuff! I think he should have ended his newtie-infidelity anthem essay with an anthem-like question
O say, does my star-spangled flag pole yet wave
O’er her land of amber waves, and the home of her fruited plains? You betcha!
239 chars
Little Bird said on March 11, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Apparently the nuclear reactor in Japan is extending the evacuation area. And they plan on venting the (contaminated) air to relieve the pressure, in an attempt to avoid a meltdown. And the hits keep coming.
210 chars
LAMary said on March 11, 2011 at 6:39 pm
If you’ve ever been through a quake of any size you know it’s very frightening. I’ve been through the Whittier Narrows quake in 87 and the Northridge quake in 94. While the initial big jolt and shaking is bad, the aftershocks are what really drive you crazy. You feel like you can’t trust the ground you’re walking on. I was in Costco for one big aftershock, watching those high shelves full of heavy stuff shaking. The place I would not want to be when a big one hits LA is downtown. It would be raining broken glass from the big office buildings. Shuddering just thinking about it.
583 chars
Jolene said on March 11, 2011 at 7:49 pm
New tsunami fact: According to the BBC, each cubic meter of H20 weighs a ton. My gawd, think of the weight of the water that poured in. A cubic meter is hardly anything in terms of volume, yet the weight is massive. No wonder cars and boats and buildings can be tossed around like Lego blocks.
293 chars
Jolene said on March 11, 2011 at 8:18 pm
A good video explaining how earthquakes and tsunamis happen. Two minutes.
160 chars
prospero said on March 11, 2011 at 9:08 pm
Juan Cole saysPeter King is more like Tricky Dick than Tail-Gunner Joe.
Remember the photograph of flower child Maggie Trudeau sans drawers? K.T. Tunstall has written a song aboutthat incident.
Joel Achenbach is a science reporter that for WaPo, who also writes an entertaining blog. This his explanation of the geophysics of the earthquake and political and academic factors that complicate the response.
749 chars
Cara said on March 11, 2011 at 11:02 pm
Anyone want to bet the imprudent MI guv will soon become acquainted with the members of the MI militia? Visit any MI cemetery and observe the honorary flags of deceased veterans. Every MI generation has put its life on the line for our basic freedoms. I doubt that mindset has changed one whit!
297 chars
moe99 said on March 11, 2011 at 11:55 pm
Does anyone here have contacts in Japan that could be of use to a couple who is searching for their son who was teaching English in Sendai (the epicenter of the earthquake). His name is Aaron Strumwasser and they are frantic with worry. They’ve tried the State Dept and google and everything else they can think of, but no contacts yet. Thanks.
347 chars
Dexter said on March 12, 2011 at 1:31 am
Last night about this time I typed a post about how the pain clinics and the doctors and the junkies and the sleazy selling of prescription drugs had made parts of the Tampa Bay region, including Pinellas Park and the towns on both ends of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, scary places to live.
I had heard a show on radio and a nurse called in and told all about it. Yes, druggies and gangs alike are establishing zones to use as distribution points for the oxy drugs … it is a huge business which up until last year I had no idea how large it is. Pill mills. Yep, new lexicon, always need to remain teachable.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/Florida/PainClinics/prweb8163760.htm
So my post died when I hit submit, sometimes my computer does that late at night…I have no idea how hospitals and truck stops do any business at night when the internet shuts down for hours at 1 or 2 in the morning .
I watched an old Bogart movie OnDemand at that point and when it was over I switched over to see if anything had happened and OMG it had.
I then stayed up until sun-up with my new dog curled up on the couch in my den with me, and I watched the cable news reports and oh hell forget about sleep. I never did go to bed. I called my phone book and everyone had heard; my brother was at O’Hare waiting to board for Las Vegas and his son’s wedding; he had only seen bits of coverage so I filled him in.
Like most, this looked like bad CGI. This was the most remarkable footage I have even seen on TV. Nothing will top, for me, watching two Cobra gunships work out on a hillside in Vietnam, for a very long time, the rocket launchers, the mini guns and the grenade launchers all going in at once, and all this was just unforgettable, but that was live-in-person, and this was TV, but I know I will never forget what I saw today on TV.
The refinery explosions, the buildings exploding, the river of burning buildings, the cars and boats looking like so many dead alewives like we saw just the day before…oh, man…I wish John Cash was alive to re-write “Ring of Fire.”
2082 chars
Julie Robinson said on March 12, 2011 at 8:29 am
Moe, I can only imagine what that must feel like. Does the Red Cross still have services to locate displaced persons? I’m adding a prayer for the Strumwasser family along with the others.
190 chars
Jolene said on March 12, 2011 at 8:38 am
I’ve been staring at your message too, Moe. Wish I knew some way to help, but I can only hope along w/ you and your friends.
124 chars
brian stouder said on March 12, 2011 at 10:41 am
The (new) video images of the explosion at the Japanese nuclear power plant are troubling, and the official reassurance that all is under control there is flatly unconvincing.
I suppose terrible cataclysms like this huge earthquake and tsunami have always occurred on our Earth, but the immediacy with which harrowing images flash around the planet nowadays, and the way that information stream is unendingly updated, begins to render “provincialism” as not just obsolete, but impossible, in fact.
It’s the very thing that preachers have always preached, but which a person could comfortably deny or ignore (in their own mind), and have that denial implicitly confirmed by their printed local newspaper; even despite this or that still photo, from some bad event on the other side of the world, from a month ago.
If we look at Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech*, and apply it to the world (instead of just our nation), it might be true that earth shattering events like this one in Japan are pushing humanity closer, whether all of us want to be or not.
I say this because just hours into these bulletins yesterday, a fellow said – to no one in particular – “I suppose we’ll have to spend $100 billion on them now” – as if all this represents is an unwanted bill; something he doesn’t want to deal with, and would as soon shirk.
*an excerpt from that speech (because, why not, eh?) :
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
As information and real-time imagery rings from every hillside and every hamlet, and every state and every city, everyone with satellite tv or an internet connection cannot fail to see the eternal truth therein.
2573 chars
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on March 12, 2011 at 12:59 pm
Julie, congrats — is this a Lutheran intentional community?
My wife’s colleague across the hall left Thursday am for Tokyo to deliver a paper at a conference. No word at all; I had to be the bearer of un-good news, not necessarily bad, when his wife was briefly cheered because calling his cell no longer got a broken-up woman’s voice in Japanese with some recorded message, but was now going to “his voice mail.” I had to explain that as long as the minutes were paid for, that service is located somewhere between Albuquerque and Reykjavik, and doesn’t tell us anything about where he is.
But from the looks of things, he’s stuck at an airport somewhere sleeping on the seating and eating out of vending machines.
723 chars
Julie Robinson said on March 12, 2011 at 1:41 pm
Thanks Jeff! Sarah is part of the Evangelical Covenant Church (the old Swedish Covenant). They are very similar to Lutherans except they are adding members and starting new churches. She enrolled at their seminary because they had a two year youth ministry degree and she likes Chicago, and within a month was offered a full scholarship to complete the four year M.Div. We love the way she has been embraced and encouraged even if there is a (small) twinge of sadness. I’ll add prayers for your Tokyo bound acquaintance.
Brian, your point about provincialism is exactly why traveling, and hosting foreign exchange students, is so helpful. When we heard about the floods in Australia and the earthquake in New Zealand we immediately thought of people and places Sarah had visited, and those who had visited us, so we sought as much information as possible. They had become real to us, not just “them”. And in a small way, it’s why the media looks for a local angle to stories, so they become real to us. It’s done to excess of course, and I remember the time when the News-Sentinel declared that the front page would ONLY have local stories. I believe they were looking to find a niche. Not successfully, but I digress.
1227 chars
prospero said on March 12, 2011 at 2:30 pm
Rick Santorum thinks people should quit picking onGingrich. Mr. Man on Dog is too stupid to understand is that Newt’s hypocrisy offends people at least as much as his philandering. Now, is it uncivil or offensive for me to say Santorum is stupid, or just drawing a reasonable conclusion? Serious question.
Then again, they do manage collectively to get away with bone-headed, irresponsible crap scot-free.
Not all Republicans are aholes all the time.
778 chars
prospero said on March 12, 2011 at 3:20 pm
Audacity of hope. This looked like it couldn’t turn out well. I almost couldn’t watch.
On the other hand…
There’s a lot to be said for natural instincts, apparently.
336 chars
Little Bird said on March 12, 2011 at 3:22 pm
Moe, I have left a message with one of my fb friends that has family in Tokyo. If there is the slightest chance he might know someone who can help, I’m sure he’ll pass on the message. His family might know how to get the word out. Here’s hoping!
248 chars
moe99 said on March 12, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Thanks Little Bird.
btw on another topic entirely, I’m wondering if the folks here remember about tomorrow. No, not Daylight Savings Time, but the idiots who are going to pull to the side of the road and spend an hour honking against Obama cheered on by Sarah Palin.
http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2011/03/sunday-palin-fans-plan-nationwide-pull.html
I fully expect most of us will see a few. We should keep a running tally.
432 chars
brian stouder said on March 12, 2011 at 6:06 pm
Moe – I followed the links that your link lead me to, and really, if these people have any brains at all, they’ll scrap that plan.
For one thing, heaven help them if any “I hate Obama” honky people (so to speak) get smashed into and killed out on the interstates. One need look no further than New York to see how quickly a dozen people or more can be killed, if a bus has to suddenly veer.
Aside from that, the news of this moment is that indeed, that Japanese nuclear power plant that had the explosion this morning may well be in the middle of an honest-to-goodness melt-down.
Here is a 20 minute old story
http://blogs.forbes.com/christopherhelman/2011/03/12/reports-claim-meltdown-at-japanese-reactor/
Japan’s Nikkei.com is reporting that the explosion at the Fukushima No. 1 reactor was due to a meltdown of nuclear fuel rods in its insufficiently cooled core. This was consistent with reports of radioactive cesium and iodine outside the plant. As well as the suggestion that it was a build up of hydrogen gas inside the reactor that led to the explosion earlier in the day.
On second thought, maybe the dopey-changey crowd should do their dopey-changey-honky thing on the roadside; we could use the comic relief (even if it’s a black comedy)
1276 chars
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on March 12, 2011 at 6:08 pm
Just stop . . . and click this guy’s link (from the JoeMyGod link Moe just posted) and read about F. Lynn Vogel — http://standupamericaus.com/road-to-ruin-…-just-stop-event
Palin’s friends may be as big a problem for her as her enemies.
242 chars
Jolene said on March 12, 2011 at 10:13 pm
Have come across some great collections of drawings by political cartoonists (doesn’t seem right to call them cartoons, as there’s nothing funny about them) re Japan. One, from PRI has the cartoons in a video narrated by one of their editors, and the other is in an index of cartoons on various topics.
465 chars
Deborah said on March 12, 2011 at 10:22 pm
Greetings from Abiquiu,NM. Arrived this evening, glad to be here again after not coming here over the Christmas holiday as we usually do. I must say the recession and resultant high unemployment rate has not been kind to these environs. Beautiful land, suffering people.
Little Bird is holding down the fort back in Chicago. The weather here is about 15 degrees warmer than there, also dry and sunny so it feels much warmer. Glad not to be in Chicago while they have the crazy St. Pats silliness.
497 chars
brian stouder said on March 12, 2011 at 10:30 pm
Palin’s friends may be as big a problem for her as her enemies.
Well, leaving Palin and friends aside, what about Michele Bachmann? To be coldly clinical, she is every bit as physically attractive as Sarah Palin, and she must have lots of drive and political skill, to get where she is; and yet, she seems to actually know nothing, at all, about her country’s history.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/03/12/bachmann_mangles_revolutionary_history_in_nh_109213.html
“What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty,” the potential GOP presidential candidate said. “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord. And you put a marker in the ground and paid with the blood of your ancestors the very first price that had to be paid to make this the most magnificent nation that has ever arisen in the annals of man in 5,000 years of recorded history.”
In fact, the 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord that marked the first military engagements of the American Revolution took place in Massachusetts. But Bachmann did not correct her error when she referenced the battles again later in her speech.
and then –
Several school-aged children attended the event, which was held at the site of a planned private high school. Bachmann sprinkled in remarks related to her concerns about the public education system with her calls for fiscal restraint. “I don’t think that our public schools are necessarily the place where one fixed set of political beliefs should be imposed on students,” Bachmann said. “I think that knowledge, facts, and information should be on the table, and let students decide what their beliefs should be.”
Huh. Well……errrr…..huh.
This know-nothing “Tea Party” movement, which has enthralled my old Republican party, seems to be the very definition of invincible ignorance
edit: Jolene – some striking imagery in there. The Formula One circus is due in Japan in October; who knows how things will be at that point.
2099 chars
moe99 said on March 12, 2011 at 10:35 pm
Good news from Japan tonight. Aaron called his folks and they are so relieved! He is staying at a shelter in an elementary school. No idea what’s next, but at least they know he’s alive and well. His father called my brother in tears about a half hour ago.
Here’s the KING 5 story about them before they got the call:
http://www.king5.com/home/Locals-in-Japan-call-home-some-still-missing-117842053.html
413 chars
brian stouder said on March 12, 2011 at 10:36 pm
Moe – Superb news!! Heaven knows that plenty of grim news is ahead, as the search and rescue and recovery process goes forward, but reading your post just now was wonderful
172 chars
Little Bird said on March 12, 2011 at 10:59 pm
Moe, I’m so glad to hear it! That is fantastic news!
53 chars
Jolene said on March 12, 2011 at 11:01 pm
Great news, Moe. I had seen that KING 5 piece and have been worrying about that kid ever since, especially when I heard how many people are still believed to be missing.
There’s another piled-up car picture on the WaPo homepage and one of a pile of shipping containers in multiple colors on the NYT homepage. Am not sure why I find these particular images so fascinating, but perhaps it’s because their familiarity makes it easier to realize the monstrous scale of what’s happened.
Sounds like the news from the nuclear power plants is getting worse.
557 chars
Jolene said on March 12, 2011 at 11:09 pm
Brian, the chief difference I see–on the attractiveness front, at least–between Palin and Bachmann is that Bachmann doesn’t wink and Palin does. And we all know how fetching that can be.
188 chars
prospero said on March 13, 2011 at 10:41 am
“What I love about New Hampshire is … you’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord.” — Michele Bachmann, in a speech yesterday in New Hampshire …
Yes, she really said that. And her best defense is probably to say Palin told her. Teabaggers for Reverence to the Founding Fathers and Historical Accuracy. What a maroon.
Might have to move back to Boston : Massachusetts Pirate Party.
494 chars
coozledad said on March 13, 2011 at 10:55 am
It makes you wonder if Michelle is going through the motions of homeschooling at her baby farm. I suspected she was only working with a hindbrain when she jammed her tongue down Bush’s throat at the SOTU. A sensible person would have known that could lead to trench mouth.
272 chars
prospero said on March 13, 2011 at 11:21 am
Cooz, or a contact drunk.
25 chars
prospero said on March 13, 2011 at 11:49 am
Another GOP jackass governor. If the Greedy Oleaginous Plutocrats believe in taxing pensions now, how do they defend not taxing estates?
Of course, if their main anti-union argument is that the unions have leverage from campaign contributions over the government agents with whom they bargain, how do they get aroung the leverage of corporations from the same mechanisms over the government agencies that regulate their frequently irresponsible behavior. You know, like Blankenship buying a pet judge for $3mil. The hypocrisy is stunning, and it’s sure as hell not rocket science. But it seems too much for baggers to get through their skulls.
813 chars
Jeff Borden said on March 13, 2011 at 12:10 pm
I don’t know why simply won’t call a spade a spade about the GOP and its plans. They do not want to govern. They want to dismantle or destroy government except for the Defense Department, of course, where even a $7-million per year sponsorship of a NASCAR racer is untouchable by the budgetary axe.
Unless you are making seven or eight-figures per year, I cannot see how the Republican Party represents you. The hooey about standing up for small business and family farms is laid bare as hypocrisy by the enormous tax breaks and other considerations given multi-national and agribusiness corporations. These cats are all about power and the money they need to achieve it, which makes the uber-wealthy and corporations their only legitimate constituency.
756 chars
Julie Robinson said on March 13, 2011 at 2:11 pm
Moe, how wonderful! There will be so many unhappy endings, but it is important to celebrate every life. More images from Google, if you can stand to see them: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-japan-quake-google-images-20110312,0,7929784.story. As our wise nephew said, “Go hug your kids”.
on edit: The World Figure Skating Championships were to begin Thursday in Toyko. Yesterday they were saying they’d happen but today it sounds as if there are second thoughts. It will be a blow to Japanese pride if they are moved, but it seems unthinkable that resources would be diverted from recovery efforts. Not to mention the nuclear plant problems, which are just plain horrifying.
705 chars
Jolene said on March 13, 2011 at 2:45 pm
In this set of photos, you can toggle between the before and after versions, which makes it a little easier to compare them. It’s tough for a farmer’s daughter to look at all this ruined land.
I’ve been hearing, Julie, that things are working pretty well in Tokyo–trains running again and such. The rolling power outages, though, which are supposed to begin tomorrow, will certainly interfere with all kinds of things.
518 chars
Jolene said on March 13, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Yikes! The Washington Post has a whole new look. I don;t think I’m going to be happy about this. I tried to look at it for itself, i.e., rather than as an assault on a familiar form. Impossible to do, of course, but even w/ my best efforts, I can’t say I found it appealing. Among other problems, the designers have overestimated the appeal of white space, especially in the body of articles. Also, I want my serifs back!
Now that I’ve given you this unbiased overview, would be interested to hear what you think.
516 chars
prospero said on March 13, 2011 at 5:24 pm
Concord Ne Hampsha was a slip of the tongue, like saying 57 instead of 47? This is the big defense for Huckleberry.bee and the insane ladysaying shit that is so obviously ignorant or intentionally dishonest. The comparison is non-existent. If you asked Obama how many states there are, he would have answered correctly. If you’d asked Bachmann about what she meant, she would have had some boiler plate about the granite state. If you’d asked Huckleberry, God only knows how he’d have explained that Orly Taitz worm in his brain, or who those Indonesian Mau Mau might have been.
Back in ’04, I thought there was good reason to leave the USA. It’s where I was born, I’m as patriotic as the next person, but the populace was behaving like a bunch of selfish assholes, and wealth was being accumulated at the nefarious top. I compare this to Tibetan Buddhism. We were all supposed to hand over our daughters over cliffs to ensure the rulers well-being. That is what the lama insisted upon for centuries.
In 2004, voters were confronted with Kenneth Blackwell, a business partner of the Diebold voting machine company with a massive voting machine contract in Ohio, that was also W’s state campaign manager. Nobody thought there was anything fishy about the traditional Dem vote in Cuyahoga and Sandusky Counties that hande a win to the worst President ever appointe by Scalia? Swiftboat wasn’t enough, they had to cheat at the voting machines. And the liberal MSM, Kerry was ridiculous for windsurfing but W going headfirst over the handlebars of a Segway wasn’t ludicrously inept.
Also, in 2004, you had the Swiftboat liars and people that said W was too coked up to meet his commitments. Kerry ended up in Laos, W never got past some O-Club in Podunk Tejas. Who was telling the truth? That asshat Nixon protege or a very good Senato? Kerry was a target because he exposed Iran-Contra, and you can’t get away with pointing out Raygun was a shill for the Cheney-Rummy profiteers and get away with it. What would you guess for a percentage of the American voting populace that believe a word of that scurrilous shit about Kerry these days? How many peolle do you think W didn’t Jap on his commitment (and I mean no disrespect to Japanese people?)
When the invasion of Iraq was conceived, the PNAC didn’t ask W to actually sign on. They got Jeb and all the usual suspects and tried to talk Clinton into it. They ran the invasion and the occupation without ever including either in the Federal budget. They talked the cokehead into those pallets of cash. How many billions just went missing that the GOP s blaming on OObama now? I get a kick out of the term “we the people”. Is that who Cheneyburton stole blind? whose fault is that? People believed in the biggest liars since the Third Reich, and the people they believed in actually behave like that previous regime.
In all of the W years, none of the costws of the invasions qnd occupations were actually carried in the Federal budget. Like a bunch of nitwit kids using the credit cards with no accounting. Grown=ups took over, Bills are due.
When I was a not so little kid, I met Walter Reuther in my dad’s office in the Peds Department of Metropolitan Hospital, on 12th and Tuxedo. I thought at the time Detroit wa the oolest place on earth. No joke, when I met this man, I was pretty sure that rich people couldn’t fuck people over in the USA. That things would always be fair. I’d met Mennen Williams and some other big-shots, but I thought Mr. Reuther was a guardian. I know he got along great with my dad. And I was exceptionally proud. He seemed astounding. He was.
Let that bad-hair twit in Michigqan try to pull this anti-union shit in Michigan, that fool will find a new one ripped. Unions gave it up to management a while ago, but I have no doubt, since Obama and his economic team restored the car industry, the unions will be back. They had better be, or this will end up lords and serfs. And that’s what Republicans are expecting to impose. How in hell is that not the whole pont?
Balance the budget? Make rich people pay taxes. Balance the budget? Make cor[orations actually pay taxes. The way they all do in the real world. Cover social security? I dunno. Probably keep paying to $124grand. Medicare too. Medicare is worse, because these leeches that don’t need it at all still have it covering their medical bills. Here’s part of the deal, anyway, you people want to claim to be a Judqaeo-Christian government. . Okay No man is an island. Whatever you do to the least of my brethren. It’s unacceptable that familis live on the street. If you are exceptionally wealthy, you pay more in taxes. Say whatever you want, but the basis of your wealth is the poverty of your fellow human beings.
Social Justice. Iw that Socialism or exactly what Jesus enjoined you to?Way I see it, if you don’t buy into social justice, you are way pale excuse for a Christian. Unfortunately, in the Raygun years, Social Justice meant your School of the Americas croniies shot Jesuits on site, then raped and murdered Maryknoll nuns. This was all very easy for the Contras because the Reaganistas told them those were Communists, and what the fundamentalists found to be Satanic cult worshippers. This is somewhat difficult, bedcause Ron Raygun had no animosity to Catholics, personally. But seriously, he condemned these people to horrible deaths. The assassination of the Archbishop Romer at the Communion rail, that was Reagan’s government. That was that piece of shit Oliver North. Way to go Ron. School of the Americas scumbags.
I’d point out there is a fantastic movie made by Oliver
Stone about all this shit called Salvqador. It’s probably the best movie he ever made, and much thanks due to James Woods, who is ridiculously good in everything.
5833 chars
brian stouder said on March 13, 2011 at 6:29 pm
Pros – just like with the Cincinnati Reds, I always loved RWR; in fact I still like the guy.
His administration will (I think) be remembered as consequential, for better and for worse. He ballooned the deficit, but he also raised taxes (at crunch time), and we got some good for our (borrowed) money – a revitalized Social Security program, and a revitalized navy (not 600 ships, but close). He was a little unsteady with the use of American military power, but after he put us into the debacle in Lebanon, he got us right back out again (our current-day Obama-hating Republicans might re-read some of that history, before they criticize President Obama for being in no hurry to jump into Libya’s civil war).
I will agree that the Strategic Defense Initiative (aka “star wars”) was over-sold and mis-directed; it should have been marketed as a Theater Missile Defense system, which in fact IS needed (and which does exists), for nations such as North Korea that occasionally pop a missile over the nation of Japan. Such a system offers the civilized world another option, besides promising to incinerate millions of innocent citizens residing in a rogue-nation state.
That said – I think Rachel Maddow is right when she asserts that RWR wouldn’t be nearly hard-right enough for the 2012 American Republican party. Hell, the guy was a union president, and he ran a big state and raised taxes right out of the box, when he was a new governor, and signed a medical abortion law.
1484 chars
Jeff Borden said on March 13, 2011 at 6:33 pm
Prospero,
Ordinarily, I would agree with you but when it comes to Michele Bachmann, I cannot. This is the same loon who has spoken to another conservative confab about how the Founding Fathers worked diligently to eliminate slavery. Yeah, right. All of the men from the south were slave owners, not the least of them Thomas Jefferson, one of the greatest of the founders.
No. This is simply a deeply stupid elected official who says shit that has no relationship to reality. And, of course, she is a right-wing star not despite her stupidity, but because of it. This is the face of the modern Republican Party: a celebration of fear, anger, hate, envy and ignorance laced with religious fervor and faith in American exceptionalism even where it does not exist.
On the left, loons like Cynthia McKinney were treated like eccentric aunties to be tolerated. On the right, loons like Bachmann are leading lights. . .stars of the movement.
943 chars
Joe Kobiela said on March 13, 2011 at 8:06 pm
Jolene,
Those before and after photos are stunning, to be able to scroll over the before and after are unbelievable. Thanks for the link.
Pilot Joe
150 chars
prospero said on March 13, 2011 at 9:48 pm
Brian, the reds have sucked big time, there is no way to occntemplate how much, They were always grossly overrated p;ayers with Joe Mprgan telling you nobody ever played better at that position. When I got dumped all over by Reds types for suggesting that Pudge was just as good. Well Bi;; James thinks so too, you assholes. So I’, right about that. Y’all jumped all over me avbout Pudve and Bench. S5q59w59ca;;7 0ffensively, they both sit for Piazza/ Defensively, there is little doubt Fosse was the best until that shitheelPete rose waxed his knee dor no apparent reason.
So screw you reds fans/ . and how ’bout that Tressel? well he cheated his ass off. As a UGA fan that saw the best player in the game sit four out f04 a3ll8ng a jwrsewy ro nobody anybod6 ever heard of, and rhs aholes played a bowl game?
sorry, how does OSU and how does NCAA get around fucking over
uga’s season?
895 chars
coozledad said on March 13, 2011 at 10:15 pm
Republicans love a damned criminal. The frisson of having to watch your back because you’ve been fucking people over is a unifying feature of the party. Probably why the whole “forbidden” take on human sexuality always finds them in bathrooms and perforated drywall rest stops, redefining kink. Remember, these are the people who mourned Nixon, and who still venerate Bush in oily shower curtain covens. Sometimes I think they’re opposed to abortion because it limits their supply of infant wax.
I’m rooting for the zombie of Robert Wagner to come back and break his foot off in Scott Walker’s polyp ridden, deeply fissured arse, but it seems the nightmare of conscience is only for the sentient.
697 chars
Jolene said on March 13, 2011 at 10:22 pm
Your descriptive prowess, cooz, is beyond compare. I’m thinking having a polyp-ridden, deeply fissured arse might be pretty bad even w/o being assaulted by a resurrected Robert Wagner.
184 chars
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on March 13, 2011 at 10:31 pm
Our provost at Denison was able to send an email from a laptop on a sat-phone connection this morning; his plane was apparently landing as the earthquake hit, and he spent three days at Narita before getting shuttled to a hotel somewhere in the Tokyo area (it sounds like he doesn’t even know) until planes start heading out. The problem is transoceanic flight means you don’t just re-gas and say “off you go, lads,” but you need the full team to essentially dismantle the engines, overhaul them, and put them back together. If I were flying from Tokyo to LA, I’d want that, too.
So we don’t know when he gets home, but he’s well. Unlike tens of thousands nearby. And the future of nuclear power? Hmmm.
709 chars
coozledad said on March 13, 2011 at 10:35 pm
Jolene: You know what’s shameful? I took a course on Robert Wagner in undergraduate, and when I looked him up, I didn’t even remember him being born in Prussia. Oh, The brain cells I have roasted.
196 chars
brian stouder said on March 13, 2011 at 11:06 pm
Pros – regarding the Reds, as Jim Rome used to say (and possibly still does) – “Scoreboard, baby!”.
I remember a stretch in the summer of – was it 1975? – when the Reds won 40 games out of 50.
Say whatever you want, but that team would have kicked the ass of any team you can name. If there was a better second baseman than Morgan, or a better short stop than Concepcion – the question that arises is “who cares?”. The Cincinnati Reds of the mid 1970’s was, in sum, the best team in baseball.
But enough of that. The news from Japan seems to be spiraling again, at this hour; more explosions at the nuclear plant, and more aftershocks, and more wave alerts.
One thing that made me think twice was a reporter’s discussion of the relativity of the term “after shock”. Apparently a day or two before the monster 9.0 quake of Friday, there was (what we can now call) a “fore-shock” in the 7’s. The unnerving part of the discussion was that the 9 isn’t guaranteed to have been the main shock (only hindsight can ever tell us this); and even if it was, we can expect quite violent 7’s and 8’s as “after shocks”.
And indeed, the point was made that we have seen major shocks in the southwest part of the plate (New Zealand), the southeast part of the plate (Chile), and now the northwest part of the plate (Japan); leaving the northeast corner of the plate – the west coast of the United States – overdue.
1429 chars
Jolene said on March 13, 2011 at 11:33 pm
Joke from Andy Borowitz on Twitter: Governor Walker reminds everyone to set their clock back to the Industrial Revolution.
122 chars
prospero said on March 14, 2011 at 12:02 am
Jeff, did I ever say Michell Bachmann wasn’t a freaking nitwit? She is so freaking stupid it’s hard to believe. Is there a single flagship politician for the Teabaggers that isn’t a boafide isiot? These people revel in abject ignorance, stupider the better. And if somebody points out the stupidity, that;s hate. Last ai knew Hate was neither a nown nor an adjective, it was a se5viceable verf. I believe they mean hatred, the nominative form. What they all think about the idea of a brown=skinned guty being President. That is not acceptab;e. Hatred-what? Check yourself. Just like all those jackbooted thugs with automatics at the union rallies in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Right you creeps? There were weapons and there were jackboots, but they were all on the teaparty side. Making sure those thug teachers didn;t attack somebody. These fo;ks are muts.
But really, you dumbasses. Hate as a noun, no, you morons, that would be hatred. And there’s no hatred for W, that they seem so concerned about, he was a little man that the PNAC crowd put in a big situation and all those palettes of billions just disappeared into Halliburton’s pocuets, aka the self-appointed VP. How much of that cash ended up with his duck blind buddy Scalia? Wvwn rwmotely enquiring minds would want to know.
Bush v. Gore was made-up horseshiyt. and 2004 wa Kenneth Blackwell and his buds at Diebold guaranteeing Cuyahoga and other counties that had never reported late and Republican doing both. They fucking robed it at the machines in Ohio in 2004. Now this was the Swiftboat election, so it’s difficult to be sure about how fucking stupid people were about who served with honor and who coked out of the Air guard in Bama. Unless you aren’t a fucking idiot. W skipped out. Kerry got his ass shot at. Repeatedly. What sort of twit did you have to be to think W served remotely honorably and Kerry didn’t especially when the guy sliming Kerry consistently was that seersucker suit asshole that was a buttboy for Milhous. So what the hell is wrong with an electorate that votes consistently against it’s own interest, but also votes like morons for well=known pieces of shit over people that have proved they serve the country honorably? What is wrong with people that buy swiftboat over facts that W just bagged his commitment because he was too coked up to bother? What the hell?
2369 chars
prospero said on March 14, 2011 at 12:33 am
In a rational world, would a politiical party pit Wnvs Kerry? And if they did, would they tear down Kerry with bullshit meaningless crap? It’s my personal opinion that Kerry is a great American for having exposed Iran Contra. In the eyes of whaackos, that was an act that continued Kerry’s socialist looney throwing aaway his medals? Are these people fucking Kerry ove Patriots, or are they some wierdos we’d rather have Kerry deal with. During the 2004 campaign, Kerry was consistently ridiculed by the comb=licking PNAC gang for pointing out that what worked against terrism was good police work. It seems more than obvious at this point that good police work worked a fucking lot better than shock and awe against a bunch of folks that had nothing to do with any of it in the first place. So why do papers of record let Wolfowitz even opine? Who care what any of these failed assholes say at this point, unless you listen, and lean way opposite, so you don’t do anything as stupid as the briar patch they left Obama in in the first place. Anybody that signed that PNAC letter is a proven idiot and should shut the fuck up, including Jeb. They didn’t ask incurious monkey boy, because, they thought he was a lightweihgt. Kinda dumb. Now these fools think the US should plunge in with the no-fly? If it were done, twer’e it will done, then best done quickly. The only way this makes any sense is to blow up Gadaffi’s planes and helicopters on the ground, No non-combatants would be hurt. Western bombong runs killing the sort of collateral damage people W reveled in, Allah knows what that would mean. But everything there is insane. Israel is moving 500 more settlers into luxury condos to increase security after a n Israeli settler family in the West Bank was slaughtered, to increase security. We’re pussyfooting around some inchoate Iranian nukes when the Israelis collaborated with the South Africans to steal tech and fissionable material from the US. What would anybody expect the Syrians to do? What must the Saudis have already done? . Israel stole the bomb from the US while the USA was providing their asses with the second best air force in the world. Wasn’t enough? Israel’s espionage behavior makes it pretty clear that the country would turn on the USA at the drop of a hat. I mean, Israel is active spying here now, and arrogant about it.
2360 chars
prospero said on March 14, 2011 at 1:11 am
I know, this must be some sort of anti-scemitism, but haw in the world does extending illegal occupation of the West Bank increasee aisraeli Security in the West Bank? According to international law, these people have no business there whatsoever. How does the Israeli government support moving another 500 “settlers” in. And would they use another term. This is not the Engalls in a cabin. These are luxury condos depriving Palestinians of access to land where they have grown olives and figs for centuries, after their ancestral homes have been bulldozed.
No, you are supposed to imagine that Palestinians and bedouins, because they are all arabs, semites, so to speak. Palestinian homes that have been bulldozed by the IDF to make way for luxury condos for settlers have been there for centuries. are one and the same. Jimma Earl was right abouat this. It’s Appharteid, and the opposition are keffirs, to be dealt with the way the superior race sees fit. People can’t see there is something wrong here? Where do the Israelis get off? They’re the great partner for the USA? They spy on us and steal fissionable material to make a whole bunch of nukes. Friends like that, enemies not required.These are on-going war crimes by the Israeli nation. They know it. They don’t give a shit. They think that Palestinisns are less than human, apparently. What is wrong with these assholes? and how is what they do as a matter of course with bulldozers wotse than anything Gadaffi does? Same result different methods.
1513 chars